Reaping
Erik [1] - Dutiful
"Erik, you take care of Mr. Rama. Remember he's nobody, he's just your stepfather. Than you have to bother taking care of all the needs of your stepfather. You better take the old man to the nursing home. More practical and you also every morning no longer often late to the office."
It was more or less the response of some of my colleagues who knew that I had to take care of my father every day before leaving for work. I don't know why I wonder at those who seem to have the right to regulate what I want to do or what I don't want to do.
Besides what's wrong if I choose to serve my father in his old age. Even though I realized that Rama's father was not my father. But that does not mean I have no right to love and devote my life in return for all the struggles he raised me to this great moment.
Ever since my biological father went to prison, I used to hate Rama's father because I thought he was the cause of all the mess that happened in my family. But as time went on and age I realized one thing. That all this time I've been blinded by my own father's attitude.
Many precious events that I have experienced since Rama's father married Wanda's mother. Even if they are not my parents, they both treat me like their own child.
***
I just finished helping my dad clean his body. Every morning for the last ten years my morning activities begin with helping all my father needs. Starting from waking him up, helping push a wheelchair towards the bathroom, to help soaking his body and watering his entire body with warm water.
Yep, every day I always help dad bathe and clean his body. Anyway how can I let my dad do the bathing while he alone can't move a single limb. Since my mother went to heaven ten years ago, her psychic and physical condition has declined dramatically. Even his father's peak was hit by a stroke, which resulted in his body being almost a hundred percent immobilized.
That's what made me decide to help my father do his various daily activities. It is often considered strange by others. It is undeniable that most people my age who have old parents and are already helpless. Usually they prefer to pay a nurse or bring their elderly parents to the nursing home. They assume that rather than having to bother to take care of parents who are already helpless, it is better to ask for help from others.
I felt it was not up to the heart if I had to tell others to take care of my father even to the point of having to take him to a nursing home. When I was a kid, I cared and loved me. Even if I am not his own flesh.
***
"Maybe I'm not your real father. And the fact that we both have no blood relation at all, but father already regards you as my own biological child. I'm even ready to risk my life if something bad happens to you."
At that moment, I felt that my life was meaningless. No one will care and love me. After all, Wanda's mother wasn't my real mother. He married my father when I was four years old. Surely his attention to me will be reduced because he has a new husband and will have children from their marriage.
At that time I was in the first grade of Junior High. I was so angry with the circumstances and decided to join a gang of delinquents. I was invited by the upperclassmen who were mostly third-graders to join the brawl. I don't think long I immediately agree to their invitation. In the end, something bad happened to me. I was used by the upperclassmen to be their shield. So that in the end I became an easy target for the students from other schools who threw me various kinds of sharp weapons and stones that hit my body.
I was forced to quit school for a year because my condition was terrible. Both of my legs were unable to move, there were even some tears in my stomach area that got a lot of stitches. At that time I wished I had better die than live a disability and had to experience various pains all over my body. After all, if I die, I will be able to directly meet my two real parents in another world.
But it turned out without me expecting it. The person I hate so much and blame for all the bad luck that has befallen me. That person was unceasingly taking care of me and helping me every time I was in trouble. Whether it's when I'm going to eat or when I'm going to go to the bathroom. My own real father never even paid that attention to me.
From then on my assessment of Rama's father slowly began to change. My assumption of him has been wrong all along. All the bad things that happened to me were not because of him, but were the law of cause and effect.
Just like my real father who went to prison because it was a mistake that often tortured Wanda's mother. I guess all this time a father was supposed to be rude to mother. But when I learned many things in school, it included despicable acts and domestic violence aka KDRT should not happen in any family. The bad temperament passed down by my own biological father slowly began to change over time as I lived together with Rama's father.
My admiration for Rama's father was not only because he was always kind to me. During this time he never even retaliated against various harsh treatment and unpleasant remarks heard from the surrounding residents. Over the years he was finally able to change the attitude of others who had hated him who in the end turned around to be good to him.
Father managed to change the mindset of the citizens who had been thinking colot and narrow. This land I live in is not my birthplace. Since Wanda's mother divorced my father and decided to marry Rama's father. The wedding took place in Wanda's mother's hometown which includes remote areas and the citizens mostly have a narrow mindset and consider the taboo of marriage different ages.
But slowly the rude and unkind attitude of the citizens began to change since the presence of the father in this place. He opened my eyes in looking at every problem in a wise way. In the past almost everyone always looked down on and hated whatever the father did, but now almost certainly all villagers know and respect the figure of my father.
***
